WORLD NEWS JUNE 8, 2014 5

My Iraq War Vote Was Egypt Sentences 10

Brotherhood Supporters
Wrong: Hillary Clinton
WASHINGTON (Press TV)

To Death
The US Defense Department will
send American military advisers to
Ukraine in order to build defense
institutions in the country.
CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian court sentenced 10 supporters of
Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen
the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood to death in absentia on Saturday Lainez said the two countries could
but postponed sentencing of its leader and other senior members tried strengthen long-term defense co-
in the case, judicial sources said. operation to help Ukraine build
Those sentenced were convicted on charges including inciting vio- highly effective armed forces and
lence and blocking a major road north of Cairo during protests after defense institutions.
She added that the Pentagon con-
the army toppled President Mohamed Mursi last July.
siders sending its military advisers
All 10 were assumed to be in hiding amid a state crackdown on a first step toward helping to
the group since Mursis ouster. One of those sentenced was Abdul shape and establish an endur-
Rahman al-Barr, a member of the Brotherhoods Guidance Council, ing program for future US efforts
the movements executive board. to support the Ukrainian military
Mohamed Abdel-Maqsoud, a well-known Salafi preacher who fled through training, education, and
assistance.
to Qatar after Mursi was toppled, was also sentenced in absentia. We are committed fully to get-
Death sentence recommendations in Egypt are passed on to the ting the assistance to Ukraine as
countrys grand mufti, the highest religious authority, for his review. quickly as possible, Lainez was
The court can ignore his opinion and its rulings can be appealed. quoted as saying by Military Times.
Judge Hassan Fareed said the verdict for the rest of the defendants Earlier this week, US President
Barack Obama promised to provide
would be announced at a hearing on July 5.
Kiev with an additional 5 million
dollars in military aid including

Putin, Ukraine Leader

the training of its law enforcement
and army personnel.
Since March, the United States

An Iraqi man looks at a destroyed minibus at the site of car bomb attack in
the northern city of Kirkuk on June 4, 2014.
WASHINGTON (Press TV) For-
mer US senator and secretary of state
Hillary Clinton has described her
vote authorizing the war in Iraq as
wrong amid speculation she might
run for president in 2016.
Her comment about the 2002 Sen-
ate vote as a senator is published in
her new book, Hard Choices, due
to be released June 10, CBS News
reported.
[M]any Senators came to wish
they had voted against the resolu-
tion. I was one of them. As the war
dragged on, with every letter I sent
to a family in New York who had
lost a son or daughter, a father or
mother, my mistake become (sic)
more painful, Clinton wrote.
I thought I had acted in good faith
and made the best decision I could
with the information I had. And I
wasnt alone in getting it wrong.
But I still got it wrong. Plain and
simple, she added.
The vote to authorize military ac-
tion in Iraq dogged Clinton with the
Democratic Partys antiwar activist
base in the 2008 presidential prima-
ries.
Clintons rival, Barack Obama,
opposed the Iraq war from the start.
He gave a speech in 2002 when he
was still an Illinois state senator, op-
posing the war.
Clinton failed to distance herself
from the vote, but she stopped short
of saying she regretted casting it.
In 2003, the United States invaded
Iraq in blatant violation of interna-
tional law and under the pretext of
finding weapons of mass destruc-
tion allegedly stockpiled by former
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
A War Crimes Tribunal in Malay-
sia in 2011 found former US Presi-
dent George W. Bush and former
British Prime Minister Tony Blair
guilty of war crimes for their roles
in the Iraq war.
The tribunal judges also stated
that the US, under the leadership
of Bush, fabricated documents to
make it appear that Iraq possessed
weapons of mass destruction.
However, the world later learned
that the former Iraqi regime did not
possess WMDs and that the US and
British leaders knew this all along.
Over one million Iraqis were killed
during the invasion, according to
the California-based investigative
organization Project Censored.
Break Crisis Ice has approved more than 23 mil-
lion dollars in security assistance
to Ukraine.
President Obama has pledged to
invest one billion dollars on step-
ping up the US military presence in
Eastern Europe.
****
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters)
- South African President Jacob
Zuma was admitted to hospital for
tests on Saturday, after previously
being advised to take some rest, the
presidency said in a statement.
Doctors are satisfied with his
condition, a statement on the pres-
idency website said.
The presidency said on Friday that
72-year-old Zuma would take a few
days off from public appearances
after a tiring election in May, which
Ukraine president-elect Petro Poroshenko (C) looks on as German put him in office for a second term.
Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) talks to Russian President Vladimir The president is in need of a rest
Putin after a group photo for the 70th anniversary of the D-Day following a demanding election and
landings at Benouville Castle, France, June 6, 2014. transition programme to the new

Internet Giants to Face Tougher EU Data Law
BRUSSELS (AFP) - Foreign
firms operating in the EU, includ-
ing those that dominate the Inter-
net, will be subject to a new data
protection law which is still being
finalised, the EU Commission said
Friday.
Personal data protection has be-
come a hugely sensitive issue after
revelations of massive snooping
by US and other intelligence ser-
vices, including through networks
belonging to major telecoms and
Internet giants.
Data protection will apply to all
companies operating in the Euro-
pean Union, said Viviane Reding,
European Justice Commissioner
after talks with EU ministers,
You might think this is self evi-
dent, but let me tell you -- far from
it. It was one of the most conten-
tious points when I presented the
data protection reform in January
2012, Reding said.
Europeans have been alarmed
by information on US snooping
European Commissioner responsible for Justice Viviane Reding
Yahoo -- have warned their image
could suffer if the US did not scale
back spying.
In a report Friday, British tele-
communications giant Vodafone
admitted government agency
tapping into its network is wide-
Government spying by pri-
vate companies, if ever neces-
sary, should take place not with a
hoover but with tweezers, she said.
Watchdog: Nigeria Govt
PARIS (Reuters) - The leaders of
Russia and Ukraine held their first
talks on Friday since Moscow annexed
Crimea, airing ways to end their four-
month conflict in a brief encounter
during commemorations in France of
the World War Two D-Day landings.
French President Francois Hol-
lande and German Chancellor An-
gela Merkel brought together Rus-
sias Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian
president-elect Petro Poroshenko
for a 15-minute meeting before they
joined other dignitaries for lunch.
Putin went on to have an equally
short meeting with Barack Obama in
which, according to a White House
official, the U.S. President urged
him to recognize Poroshenko as
Ukraines leader and to cut off arms
supplies to pro-Russian separatists.
French officials have been plotting
for weeks to use the 70th anniversary
of the D-Day landings - a key event
helping to end World War Two - to
try to break the ice in the most se-
rious European security crisis since
the end of the Cold War.
Hollandes office said Putin and
Poroshenko shook hands and agreed
that detailed talks on a ceasefire be-
tween Kiev government forces and
pro-Russian separatists in easter-
nUkraine would begin within a few
days.
Poroshenko, brought to power by
pro-Western protests which Putin has
termed a coup, was photographed
looking unsmiling and earnest as he
stood with the Russian leader and
Merkel.
It was a normal, serious exchange
between two leaders, an official in
Hollandes office said.
This marks tentative progress
which he (Hollande) welcomes, par-
ticularly given this occasion so sym-
bolic for peace, the official said,
adding they also discussed steps such
as Russian recognition of Poroshen-
kos election and economic relations.
Putin told traveling reporters he
welcomed proposals set out by Poro-
shenko for ending the conflict. How-
ever he declined to say what they
were and said Ukraine must halt what
he called punitive military opera-
administration, the presidency
said on Friday, adding Zuma would
continue to perform official duties
from home.
****
TRIPOLI (Press TV) Support-
ers and opponents of retired Liby-
an army general, Khalifa Haftar,
have clashed in the capital, Tripoli.
The clashes took place late Fri-
day during demonstrations in Trip-
oli held by both sides.
Supporters of Haftar reportedly
threw rocks and other projectiles at
the opponents.
Reports say a number of people
were injured in the clashes.
The former army figure escaped
an assassination attempt outside
the eastern city of Benghazi on
June 4.
During the past weeks, Haftar
has targeted militant camps, who
have also launched attacks against
his forces in return.
He launched a military offen-
sive in the countrys east against
militants on May 16, saying that he
wanted to crush them in order to
establish stability in Libya.

leaked by ex-security contractor
Edward Snowden and the 28 EU
member states are locked in mara-
thon negotiations to agree a data
protection policy that would apply
bloc-wide.
Reding said a deal on all aspects
of the bill was possible by the end
of the year.
With the Snowden revelations
especially damaging to telecom-
munications and tech companies,
some of the biggest names -- such
as Microsoft, Facebook and
spread in some of the 29 countries
in which it operates.
Vodafone admitted that as a
global business it faced constant
tension while enforcing the laws
of different countries and the ex-
pectations of governments.
Reding slammed the new revela-
tion.
One year after the Snowden
revelations, this shows again the
scale of collection by govern-
ments of data being held by pri-
vate companies, she said.
Interrupting Newspapers
tions against pro-Russian separatists.
But he added: I felt the attitude
was right as a whole ... If this (plan)
ABUJA (AP) A media watchdog group says the Nigerian government happens, then it creates conditions
confiscated or destroyed copies of at least four major newspapers. for the development of relations in
The Committee to Protect Journalists Africa coordinator Sue Valentine other areas, including the economy.
said Friday that denying Nigerians access to news and information sows A senior French official present at
the seeds of rumors and distrust. the meeting said they had discussed
The Punch newspaper accuses the military of disrupting distribution of Russian gas supplies to Ukraine,
copies Saturday. The newspaper says soldiers stormed its distribution cen- which Moscow has threatened to
ter in Abuja, the capital, and expelled marketers, distributors and vendors. cut in a dispute about payment of
CPJ says Nigerias Leadership, Vanguard and The Nation newspapers arrears, as well as key elements of
were also affected Friday, among others. The Daily Trust says delivery Poroshenkos inaugural address on
truck drivers were arrested Friday. Saturday.
The retired Libyan official is cur-
rently leading an offensive against
militants in the country. He holds
them responsible for the unrest
that broke out in Libya follow-
ing the ouster of former dictator
Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
The current government in Libya
has slammed Haftars offensives as
a coup attempt.
The former rebels refuse to lay
down arms despite efforts by the
central government to impose law
and order.